Cardiac arrhythmia is an important contributor to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in dialysis patients. Available technology has previously limited the ability to determine the burdens and triggers of cardiac arrhythmia in dialysis patients. An observational study has shown that the rate of cardiac arrhythmia in dialysis patients is influenced by both the amount of fluid removed from the patient during dialysis and the intradialytic change in potassium concentration.
There is a need for systems and methods capable of determining the probability that a dialysis patient will suffer a cardiac arrhythmia event based on the changes to potassium concentration in the patient during dialysis, as well as the amount of fluid removed from the patient during dialysis. There is a further need for a system that can optimize a dialysis prescription, and in particular, optimize the amount of fluid removed from the patient and the change in potassium concentration in the patient in order to minimize the risk of cardiac arrhythmia. There is a further need for systems and methods capable of determining the risk of cardiac arrhythmia in a patient after dialysis in order to mitigate the effects of any resulting arrhythmias.